You've Got a Friend: Befriending for the Distressed

Critics who view psychotherapy as merely a process in which you “rent a friend” may be surprised to learn that private U.K. organizations have developed an intervention known as “befriending,” where laypeople or professionals (either volunteer or paid) offer free, ongoing, nondirective social and emotional support to individuals with nonspecific emotional distress. In this meta-analysis, researchers synthesized data from 24 randomized, controlled trials that compared befriending with usual care or active psychological treatment in a heterogeneous group of individuals with distress arising from medical conditions (e.g., multiple sclerosis, prostate cancer) or psychosocial circumstances (e.g., isolated elders, overwhelmed women during pregnan…